Michael White s music news: LSO in Trafalgar Square; Proms this week; sax in Peckham; City Music Foundation westendextra.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from westendextra.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Valerie Solti, former TV presenter who became a tireless supporter of classical musicians – obituary
Valerie Pitts presented Play School during its rough-and-ready early years and later documentaries and current affairs programmes
Lady Solti with Sir Georg Solti in Hamburg, 1993
Credit: Stefan Hesse /Avalon
Lady Solti, who has died aged 83, was the widow of Sir Georg Solti, one of the great orchestral conductors of the 20th century; she was also an indefatigable force for good in the music world, supporting not only high-profile names such as the conductor Valery Gergiev, but also feeding promising young unknowns who often practised in her late husband’s studio at their St John’s Wood home.
22 April, 2021 â By Michael White
Brian Elias
QUIETLY conscientious, unsensational composers arenât the ones who generate attention, but they sometimes get their due acknowledgement. And an example is Brian Elias who, this Saturday, gets his own day at Wigmore Hall â with concerts livestreamed at 11.30am and 3pm (thereâll be no audience present) and access to an evocative documentary made about his life by the celebrated film-maker Barrie Gavin.
Born in India to Iraqi-Jewish parents but discreetly resident for many years just off the Finchley Road, Elias flourished through the 1980s/90s with high-profile scores like his Royal Ballet commission The Judas Tree and pieces at the Proms. But his output is painstakingly careful, which makes new works few and far between.